


BTS: Age of Ultron

by tazwrites



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22763596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tazwrites/pseuds/tazwrites
Summary: Tony breaks everyone's trust with Ultron, but Steve thinks the knife twists a little deeper for him
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	BTS: Age of Ultron

Everything starts peacefully. The common room is a comfortable ruckus, beer warm with all the hands it passes through, despite the perpetual ice cubes floating on top. The sound of laughter and glasses clinking echoes throughout Stark Tower. It is past bedtime for the early risers- Hill, Rogers, Banner, Romanov- but no one can find it in themselves to leave, despite the clock reading past 2. The huge party may have finally winded down, but the high remains with everyone.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but the interruption to the newly found camaraderie hurt nonetheless.

Ultron emerges from the elevator in all his broken mechanical grandeur. “Stark.” Rogers stresses, worry underlying his words, but then his attention is diverted with everyone ducking under tables from flying robots and it’s a struggle to regain control of the room. 

Steve and Thor are efficient; elbow-knee to the stomach, or hammer to the head. Tony runs to the top floor and jumps off, taking a robot down midair and working its mechanics from there. It’s slow, but at least he takes responsibility. Steve needs his shield, and why, why is Jarvis not securing anything, but Tony seems to be as surprised and shaken as the rest of them. Clint throws Steve his shield and whether it is with anger or impatience that Thor finishes off Ultron, it does not matter- the fight is over. The fight with the robot is over.

But the battle has just begun.

Everyone files into the high-tech room and starts voicing concerns. Personal information, government files, nuclear codes, and everything in between is accessible to Ultron. Everyone looks stressed and on-edge, but Tony looks broken as he shows everyone a visual representation of Jarvis. He glances to the side after a few moments, unable to bear looking at the visual any longer, and almost meets eyes with Steve. Almost.

Instead, he lets his gaze hang in space, then walks to the table and sets his device down. He looks at Banner when the Doctor is talking, but is then unprepared for Thor’s chokehold.

(Although knowing that Thor was coming to grapple his neck probably would not have helped him, anyway. Thor was too big and too strong to avoid; Tony’s fate would be played out no matter what.)

Thor is, understandably, livid. It takes all his strength to not forcefully shake Tony when he responds with “I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark.” Everyone stands in shock, unmoving, because what do you say to a 6’3’’ demigod?

Besides one individual. 

“Thor.” Rogers strides forward, unfolding his arms. It really only takes one word; Rogers is a Captain, born to lead the team with his morals and his commanding voice. But he adds “The Legionnaire,” so that Thor has something else to think about instead of strangling Tony Stark.

Thank the Lord for Captain America, Stark thinks as he scrabbles for footing when Thor lets him down none too gently.

Of course, Stark’s personality almost lands him another chokehold. Banner was right in warning Tony not to laugh. Everyone’s shoulders draw up a little more tightly, the shuffles in the room become a little more stuff, more uncomfortable, and Steve finds himself having to reprimand Tony in front of everyone.

(In front of everyone. Steve feels terrible humiliating Tony like that. Maybe Iron Man’s ego needs a little grounding, time to time, but really it is because of his ego, big and sensitive as it is, that Steve feels guilty for speaking out.)

Of course, Tony explodes with this, just a little. He starts talking about Loki’s invasion, and his rambles are a little amusing with Rhodney’s pitch, but Stark reaches his conclusion before his tangent becomes too windy. “How are we gonna defeat that?” and it’s a challenge. Tony says it like a statement, and he finishes with his eyes settling on Rogers.

“Together.”

The term is simple, short, sweet. It manages to leave Tony speechless for a few seconds, but the man cannot back down from a verbal argument that easily.

“We’ll lose.” He says, stepping forward. Tony does not break eye contact.

“Then we’ll do that together too.”

Steve stares into Tony’s eyes with so much conviction that Tony really does end the argument. They look at each other for a couple of moments, and Steve tries to ask Tony questions non-verbally- “Why didn’t you tell me about this?” definitely one of them. He knows the answer, but it hurts. Tony should be able to tell him things, shouldn't be able to keep secrets this big.

But Tony looks away and walks to the side, so Steve starts walking around the room and making eye contact with everyone else. Captain America addresses his team in a manner that makes them all seem important to the mission, which is why he is such a good leader.

No one else could put up with multiple superhumans who each have their own reservations – and, in the case of Tony, and enormous amount of pride that impedes his ability to follow anyone’s orders – and loathe taking orders. Rogers has a special place in all of their hearts.  
\--  
Tony seems to forget his place in Rogers' heart, though. 

After the tech room, the house returns to quiet. Tony is the first to leave. 

“I'm going to go sleep so we can start on tracking Legionnaires early tomorrow,” he says, throwing up his right hand nonchalantly as he walks out of the room. 

“Sleep?” Thor seethes. He looks about ready to follow Tony and beat him to a pulp. “The man can do all of this and dare to sleep?”

Steve sighs. Tony's attitude was off putting, he understood that. But the truth was that Tony was not going to sleep- he barely got three hours on a good day. 

(And today was not a good day, so Tony would pull an all nighter. Steve wonders how many all-nighters he pulled secretly working on Ultron.) 

That thought was confirmed by Rhodes muttering “As if” and heading in the same direction as Tony. Rogers stared for a few moments, then turned around and started directing. 

“Everyone, go back to your rooms now. I know some of you are worried about your safety because of Ultron,” and many lips tighten in agreement, “but there is no need to worry tonight. Stark Tower is safer than any other place you could be.”

The last part he truly meant. JARVIS or no JARVIS, Stark had built this Tower. It was made to last. 

Rogers shows Dr. Helen Cho and Hill to their guest rooms, then returns to the tech room to see Banner hunched over JARVIS’s visual. Rogers stares for a couple minutes but then joins him.

“What are you looking at?”

“The infrastructure of JARVIS. Tony has been reliant on him for so long… I don’t know how he’ll cope without.”

“Can’t we just replace him with another artificial intelligence system?” 

Steve felt wrong the moment the words came out of his mouth. He knew there was some emotional value held by the AI, and JARVIS had amazing capabilities, but computer systems were all the same, right? JARVIS should be easily replaced.

They didn’t even have computers when Steve was born, for God’s sake. Emotionally intelligent software… it is too much for him for him to take in.

“No, well… it’s artificial intelligence, and somehow Tony made it work. He can probably re-engineer another system, but-” Banner slaps his knees and stands up, “the other system won’t have the history and experience JARVIS has.

“Anyway, I’m off to bed, Captain.” Banner says and Steve stays, staring at JARVIS’s fragments. “See you in the morning.”

“Yeah.” Steve replies. He feels an unpleasant feeling settle in the back of his throat. He could immediately tell JARVIS’s death affected Tony, but he thinks he is starting to understand to what extent the loss is felt.

JARVIS knew everything. There were no secrets to hide, no reason to impress, no pressure to assert his superiority… JARVIS was the perfect companion for Tony. He knew when to say no, when to logic with Tony. The AI was part of Tony’s personality. 

Steve grabs the card, minimizes the visual, and turns to leave the room. He’s alone, the last one. Closing the lights and pocketing the visual, he walks down the hallway. Clint, Romanov, Thor, the doors read, and Steve pauses at the entrance of his room, but braves forward.

“It was still an idiot move!” Steve hears Rhodey hiss. Tony’s door is open, then- the rooms are all soundproof.

(Thank God for that, because otherwise they would all be kept awake with Tony’s incessant mechanical work, metal scraping metal and banging the floor. Steve has passed countless sleepless nights like that, kept awake because of machinery, but then he doesn’t need sleep anyway.)

“You know what, I’m done with this conversation.” Tony’s voice drifts into the hallway. A cold draft seems to pass through the area, raising the hair on Steve’s arms.

“No.” Rhodney insists. “You need to realize that your huge, goddamn ego-”

The door shuts. Steve does not hear the rest of their conversation.  
\---  
Steve’s room is perfect. A spartan bed, a flatscreen TV that he can’t seem to work, and a spacious wardrobe that could easily fit all of his previous regiments’ clothes take up half of the room and leave the rest of it bare. A ceiling to floor window spans one side of the room, giving a beautiful view of Manhattan. Steve sits on his bed and stares out of the window until light starts to peek behind the clouds. He glances at his clock. 4:30am.

The tower is still in slumber, despite everyone’s consensus to rise early and start the mission. Steve decides to give them until 7- past that, he’s going to wake up the tower through intercom.

But now he has time to go to Tony.

Captain America does not hesitate, Steve tells himself as he stands in front of Tony’s room and raps on the door. He does not fear. There is no reason to be nervous, or anxious, or anything.

(But maybe there is. Steve stands outside Tony’s door for ten minutes, and it is an eternity. He worries- what has Stark gotten himself into in there?- but then, finally, the door slides open to a man who looks ready to murder him. Cute, because Steve is oh so much bigger, but there is legitimate hate written on Tony’s face.)

“What is your problem?” Tony states, and he is definitely blocking the entrance to his room with his body. Steve wonders, for a minute, what he’s hiding- are there more secrets like Ultron in there- but it won't help the team to jump to conclusions. 

“I know you weren’t planning on sleeping, and I wanted to talk.” Steve shrugs, arms crossed. “Last night seemed like a bad time, so-”

“So you decided that confronting me at this ungodly hour was a much better idea. Amazing, Capt’n. Your intellect never fails to amaze me.”

“Stark.”

“Don’t “Stark” me. I am not going to apologize to you, or anyone for that matter. If you all want to strangle me-”

“Tony,” Rogers says, a little more gently.

“-then by all means, go ahead. I want to see you all get along in Stark Tower without me. I want-”

“I want to know why you didn’t tell me.” Steve uncrosses his arms and steps forward. Tony shuts his mouth, swallows, and looks away.

“You know goddamn well why I didn’t.”

“Alright, so I wouldn’t have agreed with your plan. But this was huge, Tony. You could have dropped a hint, or something.”

“And what would that have done?” 

There is a sharpness to Tony’s words that was not there before. His voice drops alarmingly low, but Steve knows what’s coming. 

“Listen, can we continue this inside? I don’t want to wake anyone up.”

“I don’t expect we’ll need to continue the conversation much longer.” Tony takes a step back and puts his hand on the handle of his door. “I gave you my explanation. There’s nothing more to say.”

“Tony, wait-”

The door is closing, and Steve barely has time to fit his arm and leg in to prevent it from shutting. Tony just frowns at Steve, body half in and half out of the room.

“If JARVIS was here this wouldn’t have happened.” Tony grumbled.

“Tony, please.” Steve looks at him, desperately making eye contact. They hold each other’s gaze like they did in the tech room, and it takes all but five seconds for Tony to surrender.

(When Steve looks at Tony like that, it’s endgame. Steve puts so much trust and hope and faith in that one look that Tony legitimately feels his legs go weak. It’s hard to break that gaze, too- there is too much love, too much of what Tony craves in Steve Rogers’ expression. He can’t fight that gaze.)

Steve steps in the moment Tony pulls the door back. He surveys the room quickly- was he looking for something?- before his concentration settles back on Tony. Stark is not so sure this undivided attention is a good thing.

“Look, Rogers, it’s pretty clear we don’t see eye-to-eye.”

“So does that give you the go-ahead to do whatever you want? No one seems to see eye-to-eye with you on this subject, Tony. Doesn’t that give you any second thoughts?”

“I’m a fucking adult, Rogers. I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

“No,” Steve goes soft at this moment, lowering his voice, stepping closer. Tony struggles not to step back in response.

“We’re a team, Tony. We need to work as one.”

“I’m thinking ahead of the game, Rogers. While you all-”

“Nuh uh. Not Rogers.” 

“The fuck, Steve. I don’t have time to argue about-”

“Tony.” Steve takes a final step forward and holds Tony’s face in his hands. All he wanted to do from the first moment, from when panic crossed Tony’s face as Ultron stepped into the room, was kiss him slowly; Steve wants to show Tony trust, he trusts him. But he needs to figure other stuff out first. 

“Why did you do this in the first place?”

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life chasing criminals and risking my life! Sure, sometimes it’s fun, but don’t you think the world should settle down a bit?”

“I think that’s a solution you need to discuss with all of us, instead of taking the initiative and trying to invent a solution for all of us.”

“But none of you guys want a solution!” Tony exclaims, exasperated. He tugs at Steve’s hands, but they don't budge from his cheeks. “You’re all content to spend your eternal lives fighting evil and being good.”

“That’s not true.” Steve says quietly. “I want to settle down, but you have to admit it’s a little harder to assimilate when you’ve been transported from another century.”

Tony grunts and takes a step back. Steve lets his hands fall away.

“And though it is easier to relate to people when you’re all superheros fighting against the same enemy, I want a break too. I really do. I don’t think constant war is any way to spend a life.”

“Deep words, Rogers,” Tony says as he falls back on his chair, “but your actions don’t seem to second it.”

Steve doesn’t know what to say.

**Author's Note:**

> I also don't know what to say! Clearly. This has been sitting in my drive since like.. 2016, and I'm tired of it, so...


End file.
